Residents of the Cork suburb of Mayfield reacted angrily yesterday to being branded the dirtiest place in Ireland in a litter survey.
They claimed the area ranked so poorly in the league because of years of Government and local authority neglect.
Mayfield community activist Joe Mullane admitted local people had a civic duty to clean up the area.
However, he said the city council had failed to acknowledge the growth of the community by installing appropriate waste disposal and recycling facilities.
"The Mayfield area has expanded greatly over the last 30 years and, really, the facilities required to meet our new community were not put in at the appropriate time. We are trying to block the floodgates at this stage. Mayfield has been neglected. Cork City Council has to play some part from the fallout on this."
Mr Mullane said Mayfield Community Association had commissioned various reports on litter over the years. It was time for the local authority to tackle the problem, rather than go down the route of further research into the litter crisis.
Cllr John Kelleher, a former lord mayor who represents Mayfield on the city council, accepted the area had a litter problem.
However, he insisted facilities needed to be put in place to tackle the situation.
"I suppose it [the survey] will make us think again about what we need to do to improve the area. I think we need more litter bins and recycling facilities for magazines, papers and cardboard. We had one [recycling facility] but it was taken away and we need to put in a new and better facility."
The Irish Business Against Litter summer survey judges noted a "general lack of maintenance and air of neglect" in Mayfield.
Cobh was also named as a litter blackspot by judges.